Riego de Dios Named Big Sky Player of the Week

Mar 31, 2009

March 31, 2009

Following an impressive week of play, Nico Riego de Dios earned Big Sky Conference Player of the Week accolades for the second time this month. Last week, he went a perfect 3-0 in singles play and helped lead the Eagles to 5-2 and 7-0 conference wins over Weber State and Idaho State, respectively.

In the league matches, Riego de Dios had a 7-5, 6-1 straight-sets win in the Weber State contest before rallying from a set down for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory in the match with the Bengals. The junior then wrapped up the busy three-match, two-day trip with an impressive 6-3, 6-2 victory over No. 63 BYU&rsquo;s top player.

He and Kyle Schraeder also had a trio of tight matches last weekend, falling in the WSU contest, 8-5, before rebounding for an 8-5 victory against ISU. They then played right with the top duo from BYU before narrowly falling 9-7.

Previously, Riego de Dios earned POW honors on March 10 after helping Eastern to a dominating 7-0 Big Sky win over Montana State and playing well in a 4-3 non-conference loss to Idaho. He also claimed weekly accolades on April 8, 2008.

For the season, he is 12-7 in singles (8-5 at 1, 4-2 at 2), while Riego de Dios and Schraeder have teamed up for a 13-6 doubles mark, all at the No. 1 position.

Riego de Dios and the Eagles (12-7, 5-1 BSC) return to action with a Big Sky match at Northern Arizona (6-15, 4-1 BSC) on Saturday (April 4). First serve is set for 3 p.m.